Gen. Dempsey’s call was a PR stunt designed to show the Islamic world that the US government takes jihadist threats more seriously than it takes American citizens’ rights to free speech.
The top soldier in America’s armed forces has deliberately chilled free speech and has violated the oath he took when he entered the armed forces, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He has also elevated an obscure, fringe preacher to a powerful position impacting US foreign policy.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is, in other words, an idiot.

People in uniform, even the JCS chair, take orders. There are just a couple links, albeit weak, in the chain of command above JCS chair.

So, treating the JCS chair like a flunky continues to communicate to the Middle Eastern audience that the U.S. military is something of a joke, and need not be a concern. No doubt, the U.S. military karma is cosmically enhanced by all this, and the world will respect us more if our military image is less. . .combative.

The General should have threatened to resign [and be prepared to carry through with it], just as General Petraeus should have.

You don’t make your soldiers handle your political tasks for you in such a manner. Actions like this damage the image of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Sadly, these days, those who reach the top in the services tend to be Perfumed Princes.

http://theothermccain.com smitty

The classic question, for the reformer, is whether resignation is Pyrrhic.

Quartermaster

It’s a question that I’ve never seen answered. Frankly, it would be no kind of victory, but that’s not the issue. The issue is where does the individual with the stars on his shoulder straps or boards actually stand. Is he a man of principle, or is he what David Hackworth caustically labeled a “Perfumed Prince.” I can’t say there has been anything other than a perfumed prince as a service chief of CJCS since LeMay was fired as CoS of the Air Force.

General Dempsey did not get where he is by attacking machine gun nests, He is a politician first and a General second.
He should have told Obama to stick it.
He, like the grunts, are compelled by the UCMJ to refuse an illegal order.
Impeach and imprision Obama.